nbutcher-69458

Let's not mince words here. This is a bad and stupid movie. The Street Fighter characters have been pulled from their video game lore and reassembled here into a film with a plot that barely makes sense, and not in a good way.

I would compare Street Fighter to "Big Trouble in Little China" - both being schlocky B-grade kung fu explotation films. However this film is wildly inferior. While the film is self-aware of it's stupidity, the tone is more puerile, cartoony, and childish. There are scenes which drag on while trying to be serious, but simply fail to convince. There are plot points that are needlessly tacked on, and plenty of jokes that don't land. The worst crime though, is that the fight and battle scenes are wildly unrealistic and contain plenty of cut shots.

With the exception of Raul Julia - who steals every scene he is in as a boilerplate cartoon villain - the acting is absolutely atrocious. Van Damme was rumored to be hooked on the Colombian marching powder during the filming of this film, and it shows. His attempt at a US colonel with a strong European accent is laughable.

Honestly if it weren't for Raul Julia - and this being his last movie role before dying from cancer - I would have rated this much worse. It is still something of a guilty pleasure for those who enjoy bad films - but goodness me.

We can presume that this will be the final Indiana Jones film starring Harrison Ford. He's just too old and tired to be doing this anymore, and it certainly shows up in the performances. Sure, you can write that into the plot to make it make sense, but lets be real: Casting grandpa into an action movie just isn't going to work quite as well as a younger Harrison Ford.

Color me surprised then, when the first act of the film contains a de-aged Indiana Jones thanks to the magic of modern CGI. In fact the amount of CGI in this film is quite heavy and there's some uncanny-valley scenes in the film (particularly the parade scenes) which left me a bit flat. What I was watching was not real and I knew it - breaking immersion.

My third complaint is with the female foil. Helena is obviously an attempt at a Lara Croft-like competitor - coming full circle of it's inspiration here - but she is annoying and thoroughly unlikeable. Compared to the fun and antics with Sean Connery in the third outing, it's unfortunately not even a competition as to who made a better companion.

So what does this film get right? Well the story is actually not too bad. Indiana Jones films pick up right at the end for the climactic scene where the supernatural elements come in to play, and this one didn't disappoint either with the twist in the tale. Sadly there is no morality lesson in play in this one - despite the opportunities granted to it - so the ending feels a bit flat, especially for what we can assume is going to be the last Indiana Jones outing in film.

Yes, it's entertaining, but it could have been so much better. You can only repeat story beats so many times before they get predictable, and Indiana Jones' whip has been thoroughly cracked over with this one.

Here we go with another video game adaption. This movie is one for the fans and the kids. They'll have a good time with this one so I won't rain on their parade. Adults on the other hand - unless they've played the game - are going to be asking themselves what on earth they're witnessing. I think there's going to be a certain section of the community that will find this one a better watch in different states of altered consciousness.

This is a fun movie that wants to be as silly as possible while being completely self-aware. This is going to attract a certain kind of moviegoer that likes an awkward and cringe "so-bad-it's-good" experience. In my viewing, there was a lot of audience participation, shout outs, and things being thrown up at the screen. This could shape up to be the next "The Room" or "Rocky Horror Show" for all I know.

All the same, it's a confused movie trying to jam as many callbacks and fanservice moments into the story when it barely fits into coherency. It has a sluggish start with too much pointless exposition. The jokes are there, but they're mostly in-jokes that the fans will love. Only a scant few good ones will manage to land for the uninitiated.

I take issue with the art direction. It's creepier than the Minecraft video game is, and when the violence happens it's a bit unsettling for very young kids who are more familiar with the game's harmless visuals. If the film stuck to keeping the visual language the same as the video game and maybe used voice actors instead of live acting it wouldn't have been as awkward. Just look at the violence in the LEGO movies for reference. It's funnier and more harmless there because it accurately represents the toy and is not hyper realistic at all.

As for the acting: it's a Jack Black movie so you can expect that he'll be playing as Jack Black instead of ... you know... doing any acting. He pulls in a few stupid songs as he is does in other films. Jason Momoa gets a few puerile laughs trying to play a buffoonish alpha male. The other characters feel tacked on and sadly forgettable. Basically there's no Oscar awards to hand out here in this film.

It's an entertaining film just for its sheer ridiculousness, but it's not a brilliant piece of cinema by a long shot. It's more of a cash grab, but Minecraft fans will love it regardless no matter what the critics say. My five year old thought it was a lot of fun, and judging by the box office and post-credit sequence, a sequel is all but assured.